Missing from Sahar airport, man went on India darshan

A 26-year-old who mysteriously disappeared from the airport a month ago, was grilled by the ATS on his return; he had been roaming the country

A 26-year-old man, who was seen hailing a cab from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport instead of boarding his flight to Qatar in the CCTV footage on December 25, was interrogated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, Thane unit yesterday. He was was closely watched by the investigating agency for the last 15 days as they suspected he could be linked with ISIS.

Muzammil Hasan Duduke, a BCom graduate from Khed in Ratnagiri, who returned home from Patna on Wednesday after a month-long India tour, was also on the Patna ATS’ radar as they were worried about Duduke crossing the Nepal border to make it to Syria. But after being interrogated by Maharashtra ATS yesterday, all doubts were cleared and he was allowed to go home on Thursday night.

Duduke, who first went to Qatar on June 26, 2012 and was a truck driver there, used to earn R65,000 a month. After coming back from Qatar on October 12, 2015, he had decided not to go back. “But my family was strict and asked me to go. During my past stint, I noticed that in Qatar, Indians are treated as a backward class. Due to the pressure from my family, I decided to go but after my brother dropped me off at the airport, I changed my mind. I tried to cancel the ticket and get some cash but the authorities refused,” Duduke told mid-day.

India tourHe then took a cab to Andheri and from there, a train to Bandra. “I decided to roam around in India. During my month-long tour, I first went to Delhi, then Chandigarh, Shimla and then returned to Delhi. Then I left for Lucknow and from there I went to Patna, where I stayed for over a week,” added Muzammil, who claimed that he just had Rs 4,500 when he embarked on this journey.

mid-day had reported his disappearance on January 7 after his family filed a missing complaint with Sahar police station when he didn’t reach Qatar. After being alerted of the case, Thane ATS started tracing him through his mobile location.

Online on Facebook“We got more suspicious when we found that he had created a fake account on Facebook by the name of Addy Winston. He was chatting with his friends and few of his Qatar colleagues. Since his location was changing fast, we were worried that he could be going to join the extremist group through the Nepal border,” said an ATS officer.

Duduke claims that he was active on Facebook only to inform his friends that he is alive and in India.

“I don’t know what the extremist group ISIS means. I didn’t want to go to Qatar again, so I didn’t board the flight. I switched off my phone as my parents were calling me again and again. I was active on Facebook to be in touch with my friends and cousins. I wanted to prove to my parents that I can do something in India,” added Duduke.

“On Sunday, we alerted the Patna ATS officers about Muzammil, a suspect who could use the Nepal border to head to Syria. However, after questioning him on Thursday, we couldn’t find any leads related to the extremist group,” said a police officer.